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TUCSON, Ariz. — Not even an assist from Mother Nature could help Marian cool off the red-hot Saint Mary's University baseball team.

Despite weather that was more Minnesota-like than Arizona-like, the Cardinals' offense continued to sizzle, as SMU scored nine runs — including four in the first two innings combined — in running its winning streak to seven with a 9-4 nonconference win over Marian Saturday.

“The weather made things a little more difficult, but the guys didn't let it affect them — they just went out and got the job done,” said SMU coach Nick Winecke, whose team took the field with the temperatures hovering in the lows 40s. “That was a good win for us — we did all the little things well, and that was the difference.”

Willie Doll (Amherst, Wis.) got the Cardinals on the board in their first at-bat, leading off with an infield single, stealing second, moving to third on a ground out and scoring on a passed ball.

Marian answered in the bottom of the first with a solo run of its own, but the game didn't stay deadlocked long, as SMU scored three times in the top of the second — scoring twice on a pair of Marian throwing errors, while also getting an RBI single from Paul LaNasa (Mahtomedi, Minn.).

The Cardinals pushed their lead to 9-1 with back-to-back two-run innings in the fifth and six, before adding a solo run in the seventh. Marian scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and once more in the eighth, but it was too little, too late.

Drew Denning (St. Paul, Minn.) went 3-for-5 to pace SMU's 14-hit attack, while Doll, Kyle Servais (Westby, Wis.), and Matt Feriancek (River Falls, Wis.) each added two hits. Kevin Gannon (Roselle, Ill.) — who went 6-for-9 with seven RBIs in SMU's sweep of Illinois Institute of Technology on Friday — added another RBI with a run-scoring double against the Sabres.

Steph Scatassa (Westchester, Ill.) picked up his first collegiate pitching win, allowing one run on five hits in six innings of work. He also struck out two and walked one.

“I thought we played a very disciplined game today — and that was the key to our success,” said Winecke, whose team closes out its spring trip with a 3 p.m. CST nine-inning game against Concordia-Chicago. “We did a lot of the little things well, which was great to see.”